Men's Basketball | January 8, 2021

AMHERST, Mass. - Coming off two big Atlantic 10 victories, the La Salle men's basketball team will look for their third straight conference win on Saturday when it visits the Massachusetts Minutemen.

Tipoff is scheduled for 4:00 p.m., with the game scheduled to air live nationally on NBC Sports Network. An audio broadcast, featuring play-by-play man Kale Beers, is available on the TuneIn Radio App and Stretch Internet Radio.

NEWS & NOTES
•After snapping Dayton's 20-game Atlantic 10 win streak to close out 2020, the Explorers started 2021 off with a bang, rolling past Fordham at Tom Gola Arena, 89-52.
•It was La Salle's largest margin of victory since 2011 when the Explorers won by 38 at Towson, 89-51, and marked its first 30+ point win since 2015.
•The Explorers knocked down a season-high 16 three-pointers (16-32), just two shy of the school record of 18.
•Five Explorers scored in double figures led by a season-high 18 points from sophomore Sherif Kenney, who has now reached double digits in four consecutive games.
•Holding a 7-4 lead early, La Salle went on a 20-3 run to take a demanding 27-7 lead midway through the first half and stretched the advantage to 45-19 at halftime.
•The Explorers quickly pushed the advantage to 30 just minutes into the second half and led by as much as 41 down the stretch.
•Redshirt senior Scott Spencer contributed 16 points and was 4-of-6 from three-point land, while redshirt sophomore Jack Clark (15), senior David Beatty (14) and sophomore Ayinde Hikim (10) also scored in double digits.
•Freshman Jhamir Brickus dished out a career-high 10 assists, becoming the first Explorer with a 10+ assist game since Johnnie Shuler had 11 vs. Dayton in 2017-18.
•La Salle had a significant 47-12 edge in bench scoring and shot 57.9% from the floor.

SCOUTING UMASS
•Since last meeting the Explorers on Dec. 16, the Minutemen have dropped their last two games, 93-88 vs. Bryant and 93-92 vs. George Mason in double overtime.
•The last time out against George Mason, Tre Mitchell scored 23 points and UMass held an eight-point lead late in the second, but the Patriots stormed back to force OT.
•Mitchell has been a dominant force for the Minutemen, leading the Atlantic 10 in scoring with 22.6 points per game to go with 7.0 rebounds, 1.6 blocks and 1.4 steals.
•Carl Pierre (15.2 ppg), Noah Fernandes (12.8 ppg), Javohn Garcia (12.6 ppg) and T.J. Weeks (10.8 ppg) all add to a unit that averages a league-high 86.8 points per game.
•In their earlier meeting this season, Mitchell (the reigning A-10 Rookie of the Year) scored a career-high 37 points to lead UMass to an 85-66 victory over La Salle.

ALL-TIME SERIES VS. UMASS (UMASS LEADS 26-19)
•This will be the 46th all-time meeting between the La Salle Explorers and the Massachusetts Minutemen.
•The two teams have met every season since 1994-95.
•La Salle is 6-14 all-time on the road at UMass.
•The Minutemen have won each of the last three meetings.
•La Salle's last win over UMass was a 60-51 home victory in 2019, when David Beatty was one of three Explorers to score in double digits with 11 points.
•Last season at UMass, Beatty scored 14 points and Scott Spencer added nine points, but the Minutemen took a 77-69 win after limiting the Explorers to just 22.2% shooting from three-point land.
•When the two teams met earlier this season at Tom Gola Arena, La Salle stood within a point at halftime, but UMass used runs of 20-5 and 15-5 down the stretch to pull away. Beatty had a season-high 17 points for the Explorers.
•Beatty is averaging 13.8 points per game over five career games against UMass, including a career-high 20 points on March 4, 2020.

KENNEY NAMED BIG 5 PLAYER OF THE WEEK
•Sophomore guard Sherif Kenney was named Philadelphia Big 5 Player of the Week on Monday following a pair of Atlantic 10 victories.
•Kenney came off the bench to average 16.0 points while shooting 50 percent from the floor as La Salle defeated league opponents Dayton and Fordham.
•Against the reigning A-10 champion Flyers, the 6-4 guard tallied 14 points, 12 in the second half, as the Explorers downed Dayton for the first time at UD Arena since the 1999 season.
•Three days later, the Washington, D.C. native poured in a season-high 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting in a 37-point win over the Rams.

SPREADING THE LOVE
•The Explorers have shared the wealth when it comes to offense this season as six different players have led the team in scoring through 10 games.
•On top of that, nine different Explorers have scored in double figures at least once already this season. •In Saturday's win over Fordham, five Explorers reached double-digit points.
•Overall, six players average more than 7.0 points per game, and in conference play three players (Sherif Kenney, Jack Clark & David Beatty) are averaging above 10.0 ppg.
•Head coach Ashley Howard has taken advantage of that balance, utilizing six different starting rotations already in 2020-21.

PERIMETER PRESENCE
•La Salle's success this season has been in large part to its play on the perimeter, both offensively and defensively.
•The Explorers rank 18th in the nation and second in the Atlantic 10 in three-point percentage (.398), and the squad has made at least five threes in every game so far this season.
•Defensively, La Salle is holding opponents to just 27.6 percent shooting from beyond the arc, which ranks 30th nationally and second in the A-10.